I'm not sure there are any particular things I am looking for in worldbuilding, other than the obvious (there should BE some attempt at worldbuilding which is generally consistent).
One thing I like: little worldbuilding details which don't turn out to be important. Details which DO turn out to be important are fine (and if none of the details are important, one could argue the book has no business being fantasy or SF), but if every last unusual thing mentioned turns out to be critical to the plot it feels more like a puzzle than a book. I like puzzles, but a puzzle and a novel are not the same thing.
One thing I don't like: when the author has clearly not put enough thought into those critical worldbuilding bits. While I like to see details of food and clothing and so on, if an author punts on some of those I will probably not notice unless a)they really screw it up (e.g., food pills), b)there is nothing else interesting going on, or c)the plot relies heavily on one of the bad areas. This is the main thing that annoyed me about Libyrinth - the author clearly did not think seriously about language or libraries, and pretty much everything relates to those in the end.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-06-19 05:58 pm (UTC)One thing I like: little worldbuilding details which don't turn out to be important. Details which DO turn out to be important are fine (and if none of the details are important, one could argue the book has no business being fantasy or SF), but if every last unusual thing mentioned turns out to be critical to the plot it feels more like a puzzle than a book. I like puzzles, but a puzzle and a novel are not the same thing.
One thing I don't like: when the author has clearly not put enough thought into those critical worldbuilding bits. While I like to see details of food and clothing and so on, if an author punts on some of those I will probably not notice unless a)they really screw it up (e.g., food pills), b)there is nothing else interesting going on, or c)the plot relies heavily on one of the bad areas. This is the main thing that annoyed me about Libyrinth - the author clearly did not think seriously about language or libraries, and pretty much everything relates to those in the end.